OTTAWA — Ethel LaValley, NDP candidate in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, met with NDP leader Andrea Horwath in Ottawa, where they agreed that Doug Ford’s ruthless privatization agenda must be stopped to protect families in the community.
Ms. LaValley, who was repeatedly elected reeve and mayor in the Whitney area in the 1980s and ’90s, is no stranger to the politics of privatization after a career fighting it as a public servant and a leader in Ontario’s labour movement.
“People and families pay the price for cuts and privatization,” said Ms. LaValley. “Middle class and low-income families get ripped off.”
Ms. Horwath and Ms. LaValley say that the Kathleen Wynne Liberals have taken the province many steps toward “costly” privatization, and Mr. Ford will make matters far worse.
“Wynne and the Liberals have had 15 years to make life better,” said Ms. Horwath. “They chose not to. Instead, they chose to cut and privatize. Doug Ford’s vow to slash at least $6 billion across the board, and ‘leave no stone unturned’ when it comes to privatization, means our health care, and more, is at risk.”
The privatization of home care shows how dangerous the sell-off of public services is, said Ms. LaValley, who worked for years helping to direct and set up hospitals and health care centres while in office.
“Every elder who has had to depend on home care nursing since it was sold off to the big business under the last Conservative government has suffered,” she said. “Their families have suffered as a result of privatization.”
She is particularly concerned with the sell-off of Hydro One and the big electrical bills that have resulted from that.
“When it comes to Hydro, Wynne sold the cow. Ford will sell the whole farm,” she said.
Ms. LaValley expects Hydro rates to rise sharply if either the Liberals or Conservatives are elected.
For the last 10 years, Hydro prices in Ontario have risen by nearly four times the rate of inflation. She said this is due to,
“Too many overpriced long-term private hydro contracts that guarantee profits to private investors.”
“Privatization is making life less affordable,” said Ms. Horwath. “Liberal and Conservative governments have sold off key, revenue generating public assets – things that belonged to the people of Ontario. From Hydro One to highway maintenance, privatization has made services more expensive and delivered worse results.”
She said the NDP will keep public infrastructure and services public, end “wasteful, expensive public-private partnerships,” and “bring Hydro One back into public hands where it belongs.”
